Citrus on B.I. (Hilo, Waimea: for sale, home, buyers)

[Dinty Moore]

How does Citrus do on the Big Island, and what area is best for it? I am particularly interested in the leeward side, Kona and northward.

[OpenD]

Is your interest in commercial growing, or just in a tree or two for the yard? It makes a big difference. And keep in mind that the Big Island is the land of 1,000 Microclimates, so the specifics of altitude, temperature profile, rainfall, sunshine, and soil composition all will impact your choices.

That said, most people have a citrus tree or two in their yard, of one kind or another, and I regularly see a wider variety of citrus at local farmers markets than anywhere else I've been. Here's an absolutely amazing poster of the different varieties one photographer found around the island:

http://www.fruitlovers.com/CitrusPoster.jpg


Per my previous posts, my recommendation is to talk to the folks at the County Extension office... the main one in Hilo, or the branch office in Kona or Waimea. They have more information on what grows where than you would believe.

Extension - Hawaii County

Here's a couple of quick snapshots...

The oranges commonly grown in Hawai'i are perhaps the sweetest you'll ever taste, but there is no commercial market for them except as local produce because they are bumpy and have brown spots.

Limes of all kinds seem especially popular. I've fallen in love with some small limes I've found at Hilo market occasionally... they taste like limes, the vendors call them limes... but they are bright orange in color, inside and out, and they're smaller than key limes. I'm trying to spout some seeds for my own back yard.

A buddy in Puna had an orchard of organic Kaffir limes that were fetching big bucks from Japanese buyers for several years, but the bottom fell out of that market with the collapse of the global community.

I don't get pummelos. They taste OK, but that thick peel seems very wasteful. Nevertheless, they are very popular at farmers markets.

[KauaiHiker]

Great insights from OpenD (as usual :-). I would add that pomelos (or jabong by their Filipino name) are like sweet grapefruit, only you peel them, not cut them. Different but good. My favorite limes are the sweet, seedless, yellowish-green one I get from my tree :-)

One thing not mentioned are the fruit flies. Hawaii has a bad case of fruit flies (hence all the restrictions at airports), and fruit flies love citrus (*). If you don't pick up dropped fruit, they will invade. And once they are established, they will spread to the fruit on the tree. The ag extension has flyers on how to handle fruit flies around home gardens (basically, pick up downed fruit every day, and set pheromone traps if they are still a problem). I don't think commercial citrus growers stand a chance (and they can't export) which I suppose is why there are none anymore (Hawaii used to provide citrus and other produce to the California gold rush).

Also, a bit more about color: don't be fooled by the color of citrus in Hawaii. As mentioned, some limes are orange. Also, some lemons are orange and big, and round, like an orange. Some oranges stay half green when ripe. I read somewhere that citrus fruit are like the leaves of maple trees: they contain green chlorophyll which dies off and the orange/yellow colors remain. Except in the strong sun of Hawaii, the chlorophyll stays longer, and the fruits still has some green even though it is fully ripe inside.

(*) Remember: fruit flies like a banana, but time flies like an arrow.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by KauaiHiker

One thing not mentioned are the fruit flies. Hawaii has a bad case of fruit flies (hence all the restrictions at airports), and fruit flies love citrus (*). If you don't pick up dropped fruit, they will invade. And once they are established, they will spread to the fruit on the tree. The ag extension has flyers on how to handle fruit flies around home gardens (basically, pick up downed fruit every day, and set pheromone traps if they are still a problem).

Amen to this. After talking to the Master Gardener at the farmers market who was selling cheap pheromone traps, made from repurposed 1 liter plastic soda bottles, ($4 each, two kinds, get both) I made a purchase from her, mostly to be nice because I had no fruit trees and had never noticed any of these big fruit flies she was talking about. When I got back home I hung them up on an ohia tree, out of curiosity. Within a day I had already collected 1/2 cup of the wee beasts!

Looking at the chart I linked to earlier, I'm reminded of one of my favorites, which is elusive, but that I always buy when I see them... the variegated pink lemon. The peel is striped in green and yellow, and the flesh is pink. Slices of this fruit make a gorgeous garnish for a cool beverage.

[newUHprof]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Limes of all kinds seem especially popular. I've fallen in love with some small limes I've found at Hilo market occasionally... they taste like limes, the vendors call them limes... but they are bright orange in color, inside and out, and they're smaller than key limes. I'm trying to spout some seeds for my own back yard.

Kalamansi limes! They're awesome. I've been thinking about trying to grow some of those, too. I have a regular lime tree, but I love those little guys.

[OpenD]

Thanks, I found them on the chart, under Misc. as Calamonsie. No wonder I couldn't find them before. The girl I bought them from called them Thai Limes. But they're neither Thai nor limes, as it turns out.

Calamonsi, calamondin, golden lime, panama orange, chinese orange, acid orange, calamonding, or calamandarin. Indiginous to the Philippines, when ripe they are orange inside and out and have a sweet peel and a sour pulp (didn't know that) so they give a sweet and sour taste when fruit is eaten whole (didn't know that) and make a delicious beverage when mashed up, peel and all. I've heard they make delicious cocktails.

Often referred to as a lime because they are bright green when immature, they are thought to be a natural cross between a mandarin orange and a native fruit.

OK, think I'll have to see if I can get one to grow for me...

[Dinty Moore]

Originally Posted by Dinty Moore

How does Citrus do on the Big Island, and what area is best for it? I am particularly interested in the leeward side, Kona and northward.

I was mulling over a commercial grow of blood oranges. Thanks for your info. It seems if I have "Stumbled on" a great source of info.

As they say, Mahalo!!!

[hotzcatz]

For a commercial venture, looking around at the CTAHR site would be good as well as calling the extension offices. Check out how vog affects the citrus, too. There was a site I saw years back which listed the agricultural imports and exports from the island. I forget where I saw it, but one exists somewhere. That might help you decide which sort of crop to grow.

I wonder if it would be possible to do a commercial citrus crop and then export it as juice? That would go around any export difficulties (if there are any) on the fruit itself. Of course, you'd have to build your own processing plant, but on a small scale that might not be too terrible. Zumex makes an interesting fruit to juice machine which juices a box full of fruit at a time. http://www.zumexofamerica.com/ Set one of those up in a commercial kitchen area and you'd pretty much have an instant juice maker. You'd need County water for a commercial kitchen, although I think you can bring in the water by truck if necessary. You can also set up a processing plant on ag lands, I think, but you'd best ask the Planning Department to confirm that before proceeding.

Hmm, a fruit orchard, a juicer, then what? Sell it as fresh juice? (Need refrigeration) Sell it as frozen juice (Need a freezer) Sell it as bottled orange juice? (Need a canning or bottling device) Hey, how about orange soda made from fresh oranges? Yum! Or orange marmalade or....

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I would suspect that you could export juice, but it would have to be something that other countries aren't doing a lot cheaper.

Best market might be to a large conglomerate that was selling specialty juice blends. Like maybe Ocean Spray would be interested in a Calamonsie Cranberry product. But only if the Philapines weren't sending them the juice for half of what it cost you to grow it.

Or look into specialty, high priced individual juice servings for the health food crowd. They pay well if you figure out how to appeal to them.

China now produces all the apple juice sold in the USA. They put all the USA juice apple orchards out of business and closed all the processing plants. So you must either compete on price or sell a product that nobody else is selling.

For a small grove, you could probably sell all you produce on the Islands. Invent yourself some specialty product with your citrus that every tourist must taste. Lots if tourists, even in this economy. $1 from each tourist would add up to a lot of dollars.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Hmm, a fruit orchard, a juicer, then what? Sell it as fresh juice? (Need refrigeration) Sell it as frozen juice (Need a freezer) Sell it as bottled orange juice? (Need a canning or bottling device)

Imma think, get a small Alaskan still to produce vodka from all the downed fruit that can't be used otherwise (I coulda had a whole truckload of discarded noni fruit at the Hilo dump for free gratis if I'd just been a little better prepared and not so nicely dressed) and then...

1) Put up a nice Calamonsi infused vodka for local consumption to great acclaim, and also for sale at inflated prices to the tourists at the cruise docks. That's how I bought that great mango pisco in Chile.

2) Fuel up the pickup with the leftover alcohol to start the production cycle over again.

I mean, the black helicopters are too busy with the "green harvest" to worry about a leetle okolehau production mauka, right?